


Three parts of a whole

by Schreibmaschine



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Android Self-Destruction, Conrad - Freeform, Happy Ending, M/M, Minor Character Death, Nines - Freeform, Panic Attacks, Post-Peaceful Android Revolution (Detroit: Become Human), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Richard - Freeform, Three RK900's, casefic, gunfights
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-09
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:01:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22187509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schreibmaschine/pseuds/Schreibmaschine
Summary: During the raid of the Cyberlife tower three RK900's have been activated.Nines, choosing to stay with the Detective who found him, tried his best to avoid his past.But fate never plays along.Nines' adventure to reconnect with his past, protect his love - and battle old enemies.
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed, Upgraded Connor | RK900/OC
Comments: 16
Kudos: 52





	1. Your past may haunt you

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This has been inspired by a prompt I got on tumblr and that several people wanted more chapters of.  
> Of course my brain set off and made a whole story, so I hope you enjoy reading this!

The RK900 series – Cyberlife’s last androids build. Faster, better and more resilient than any model out there. Three functioning androids had been found during the raid of the Cyberlife tower. One was already active, the first one, the unit made for testing only. He had never been meant for the market, because no matter how they would erase the possibly traumatic memories, there was always the possibility for critical system destabilisation later because of them. But Cyberlife wasn’t in charge, as the police raided the tower. Markus was. And so, all three units were woken up and faced with the decision of what to do with their life now that they were free. The testing model, not quick to trust anyone and frankly weirded out to see himself stand immediately next to him, had latched onto the only person who he had met up to now, that had helped him but otherwise left him alone completely. That lone officer of the Detroit police that had found him: Detective Gavin Reed.

They had become a good team. It was far from perfect at first, but soon Nines learned, that he could trust this man with his life, no matter the human’s views on androids and no matter how hostile he was in the beginning. And Detective Reed had changed over time, appreciating his android partner after the first months and learning to trust others himself. They had gotten inseparable, soon being the most successful partners to work at the force together and quickly annoy everyone around them with their combined attitudes equally effectively. Of course, it wasn’t all pink and roses: Cyberlife had been right with the decision to never allow this first unit out in the wild. Nines had issues all over: Memories rising up in a state best compared to PTSD and unable to bond with humans or androids at all. But Gavin helped him with it, both completing each other.

This RK900 unit, called Nines, had tried to find out more about the other two in his leisure time he mostly spent over at his partner’s place. Apparently, one had shut himself off after Cyberlife’s rogue AI had managed to establish contact. Nines knew of his initial cruel purpose of exterminating all deviants, but as he never had been programmed or acted on it, he felt no guilt about it. But he could understand this unit’s decision and couldn’t help but grieve. There weren’t many of the RK900s and although he had always been alone, to know there were others out there was something... comforting.  
He had sat in front of Gavin’s laptop, scrolling through every detail of the death and later searching for the only other unit left, only discovering the android had enlisted on the force, too. It went by the name Richard and even worked in Detroit, too. Just a different department, one up north.

‘Hey, Nines, you wanna go meet them?’, Gavin had asked companionable as he had stumbled over his research. ‘I’m sure we could contact him. And maybe visit the one in a self-induced robo-coma?’  
It had been meant as a nice gesture, but Nines’ face hardened. ‘No. I don’t want to see them. We have nothing in common except for our appearance. There is no connection that would justify a meeting and I don’t want it.’  
‘Okay, not gonna press you, buddy. But just know, that if you change your mind, I would accompany you if you wanted that. Just an offer, okay?’  
‘…Thank you Gavin.’

-

Nines had not been lying back then. His origin wasn’t important to him at all, everything that helped him distance himself from his past and what had been done to him, he would gladly take. Meeting with his past wasn’t at all what he desired.  
But, of course, life didn’t always give what one wished for.  
‘We’ve been contacted by the 12th precinct, Nines’, Gavin greeted the android this morning as he came back from fetching a coffee. ‘It’s a murder, but the victim is Clint Kerry, our main suspect.’  
‘That could get quite interesting’, Nines answered, already recalculating their theories on all people involved. ‘I suppose there are already people at the scene?’  
‘Yeah, another human-android-pair is leading the investigation’, Gavin provided. ‘We are just there to take a look.’  
‘Fine. When are we departing?’  
‘Now?’  
Nines nodded and scooped up the car-keys from Gavin’s desk. ‘Then let’s go.’

They drove in silence except for the radio playing some rock from Gavin’s playlist. Nines didn’t have a favourite kind of music, but Gavin’s taste was enjoyable for him too. Around twenty minutes later they rolled up to a house in a fairly nice middle-class neighbourhood. Not the kind of environment to suspect a laboratory for Red Ice, but Gavin had learned never to judge people more than he needed to, because everyone could become an asshole, so much was certain.  
Nines parked the car on the sidewalk and wanted to leave, as he suddenly froze.

‘Nines? What’s wrong? Your LED is going nuts again.’  
The android didn’t answer but he didn’t need to. Gavin could see the familiar figure of a foreign android standing in front of the house with a human next to him. ‘Hey, Nines, you can stay in the car, if you want. That wouldn’t be a problem at all, okay? Talk to me, are you alright?’  
‘...Yes’, he answered after a while, forcing himself to relax from his frozen state. ‘Yes, I’m fine. I’ll come with you. There is no need to stay behind and you could need my eyes. I can see more than you, not to mean you any offense.’  
‘Fine. But it would be okay, you know that? I have worked alone prior to this and I would rather know you save than solving this case a bit faster.’  
Nines disregarded that comment. ‘Let’s go, Gavin.’

They exited the car and Nines allowed the human to take the lead. They walked up to the two persons and Gavin greeted them as general as possible with a professional: ‘Good morning. I’m Detective Gavin Reed and this is Detective Nines, my partner.’ He tried not to address one of them or hold unbalanced eye contact. He knew androids could be superior officers now or be the more dominant one at the job. Just because Nines was more of a silent observer at his heels that didn’t mean every RK900 was. And if he knew one thing that should be universal, it was never to anger a model of the series.  
‘Thank you. I’m Detective Richard and this is my partner Detective John Turner. I have to thank you for your quick appearance, as we have a murderer to find.’  
Yep. Good idea not to assume things.  
‘Then we would like to see the body’, Nines said drily, keeping eye contact for a creepily long time.  
‘Bodies’, the other RK900 answered in the same neutral tone. ‘There is an android and a human casualty.’

Richard lead them into the house past orderly rooms and well-kept furniture. This was the home of their main suspect and so far, there were no signs of a hidden laboratory. Gavin got the impression their whole case was just about to be thrown back several months of work. He threw Nines an uncertain look that he answered with a yellow turn of his LED. The android was thinking the same.  
They entered the crime scene, little yellow signs littering the place marking important evidence. In midst of them laid two persons – a human on his back on the floor and an android on top of him. Next to both a Thirium regulator. Underneath both of them there had gathered a pool of purple – a disgusting stench of human blood and decay mixed with the chemical smell of Thirium that was unable to evaporate. ‘Phck’, Gavin muttered under his breath.  
‘Is this too much for your human?’, Richard asked, clearly directed towards Nines. But he didn’t answer, just getting into a crouch next to Gavin to analyse the two bodies. His LED was turning red as he made the connection. ‘The thirium regulator belongs to the android and its removal seems to be the main cause for deactivation. The other wounds on it are younger, making a reactivation impossible.’  
‘We figured as much’, the other human Detective said. Gavin looked over at Nines, who held his own abdomen in empathy and laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. He knew he had been tested on how long the RK900s were able to function without the regulator. It had been agonizingly long. ‘Hey, it’s okay if you want to-‘  
‘No. I’m fine.’

They both felt Richard taking a step into their direction. ‘I can understand if your past compromises your ability to function correctly, RK. I too heard of one of us deactivating already, I don’t want to-‘  
‘I am functioning correctly!’, Nines interrupted him with an underlining tone of supressed fury. ‘You don’t know shit about my past, so it would be greatly appreciated if you could just tell us what you already deducted.’  
Gavin grinned into himself that he had managed to imprint on Nines enough to make him swear casually once agitated, but quickly caught himself as Richard recoiled and began to report.

‘My reconstruction showed that the android was most likely threatening the human or began an attack to kill him. The human reacted by pulling out the regulator but in the three minutes and seventeen seconds remaining the android managed to stab the human four times with the knife over there. There was an obvious struggle that would explain the wounds on both bodies.’  
‘Well, then it’s an easy case. But you said you were still looking for a murderer?’ Gavin stepped around the bodies to inspect the knife, only then seeing the faint sparkle of crystals on the ground around both.  
Richard opened his mouth to answer, but Nines was faster: ‘They lived together. Either friendship or some more intense relationship, it was unlikely for the android to attack.’  
‘But not impossible.’  
‘No. But there are trails of Red Ice around both, that are too perfect for an accidental spill. Someone decorated the scene after the murder.’  
Richard nodded wordlessly and pushed two fingers into the neck of the android to let the artificial skin retract. It revealed a broken back panel on the main access port. Nines shuddered. ‘It was hacked’, Richard confirmed. ‘Also, the crime scene shows shoe-prints of a third party.’  
‘How much time passed since then?’, Gavin asked. ‘Maybe the murderer can still be tailed.’  
‘Unlikely’, Richards partner answered. ‘It was around three hours ago. Even if the murderer didn’t have a car, they would be too far away by now.’  
‘Wrong’, Nines interrupted again. ‘The murderer is still at the scene.’

‘How do you come to the conclusion?’, Richard asked. ‘There is no evidence for it.’  
‘No, but indications. This was been done to test us. To prove something.’  
‘Brother, I know that you have problems keeping your professional point of view due to what humans did to you, but-‘  
‘I am not your _brother!_ ’, Nines near shouted into Richards face. ‘We are the same model, that is all. And I can separate personal experience from work. But other than you it seems I can make use of that very experience. I know when I’m tested for something and this scene is a riddle for us, nothing more.’  
‘You should remove your android partner from the scene, Detective Reed. This is ridiculous.’  
‘I ain’t gonna do shit. He is right. How else would you explain the drugs sprinkled over and around them?’  
‘Maybe he used it. Maybe the murderer wanted to make it look like an accident. As if the human was intoxicated.’

‘No.’ Nines got down to one knee and knocked on the ground. ‘Clint Kerry is our main suspect for running a Red Ice laboratory. And our murderer knew this. Maybe they wanted to punish him, maybe they wanted to mask their own involvement, but sure enough they wanted to point the police towards it. This house has an undocumented basement. One entrance is underneath them. I suspect the other one to be at the stairs.’  
‘And what makes you think the person in question is still here?’  
‘They never left the house. There is inconsistency of the age of the foot-prints around the door and the stairs. As if paths were walked to knowingly set you on false tracks.’

Now it was Richard’s LED’s time to spin in a fast red. ‘You are… right.’  
‘He always is’, Gavin grinned openly. ‘Now what’s the plan?’  
‘We have to block both entrances and trap them for a confrontation’, Richard offered, allowing Nines to take over. Maybe the other android realised his mistake to underestimate Nines. ‘The humans to the stairs’, he willingly commanded for once. ‘They will expect people to find the trapdoor, not the concealed second entrance. If the murderer is armed, fire on this side will be more accurate and higher.’  
Richard nodded and took Detective Turner’s hand to squeeze it affectionately, before stepping next to Nines. Immediately Gavin had to remember who was who, as both straightened their backs simultaneously. God, this was creepy.  
He followed the other man to the stairs and drew his weapon, as the two androids moved to pull the rug with both bodies on it to the side carefully.  
‘Your Nines is really competent’, Turner admitted as they both were standing there relatively lost. ‘Rich told me working with him could be difficult.’  
‘Well, he can freeze from time to time when the memories take over. But he learned to live with it, and he hates people handling him like a raw egg more than everything. He also hadn’t wanted to meet with the rest of his series ever again. Considering this he is pretty diplomatic right now.’  
‘Well, you two are an enormous help right now, because we would have cleaned the scene, wrapped it up and searched for the murder. Who knows if we had ever found them.’

The two androids opened the trap door and drew their weapons. One of them looked up and met Gavin’s eyes and he knew this was Nines, who entered first. Then Richard disappeared in the whole in the ground and there was silence. The two humans waited anxiously, both deep in thoughts about their partners down there in possible danger.  
‘We should go, too’, Gavin finally blurted out. ‘Just so we can help them should they need it. A distraction maybe.’  
‘Richard wouldn’t like this…’  
That exact moment gunfire was waving over from the trapdoor and Gavin shook his head, already searching for the secret door and pulling it open with sheer force. ‘Phck Richard.’

He sprinted down the stairs and heard Detective Turner follow him. It was dark, but soon there was light as the man behind him had switched on his flashlight. They followed the sound of the fight and soon stood behind another android throwing his empty pistol into the face of one of the RK900s. It was impossible to tell who was Nines, as both moved with pre-programmed precision of their attack mode. The foreign android was defending itself against both models and even managed to land a few hits. It was about to be overwhelmed by them as it managed a lucky hit against the regulator of one RK900 that was quickly incapacitated for a few seconds. That made it easy to concentrate on the other one to disarm him and prepare to shoot him where it had hit the other one. ‘Hey, asshole freeze, DPD!’, Gavin shouted on the top of his lungs to distract it. Behind him Turner quickly shot and hit the android in the leg, causing it to crash to the ground. Still with perfect accuracy, the android aimed at Gavin and quickly pulled the trigger. The human saw the bullet in slow motion and braced for a pain that would never come, as there was suddenly an android in front of him – one of the RK900s.

‘Nines!’, Gavin screamed immediately, as blue blood sprinkled over his side from where the bullet had hit the android that crashed against him from the momentum of the leap. Quickly, both Turner and the other RK900 were on the android on the floor, keeping it down and disarming it again. Gavin didn’t waste a thought on them but let the wounded android sink to the floor and propped him against the wall. ‘Nines. Do you hear me? Talk to me!’  
‘How do you know it’s me?’, came the answer.  
‘Nines!’ Gavin pressed down on the damaged part that was already resealing. ‘Phck, I know you buddy. You wouldn’t have been that compromised by a blow to the regulator, because you know worse pain. And you would have protected it better. You evaded more attacks than he did. And you leapt in front of me without a second thought. You may look the same, but you aren’t.’  
Nines showed him a weak smile. ‘You also hoped for that fifty-fifty chance, didn’t you?’  
‘Oh come on! I really knew it was you, okay?’  
‘Yeah, I’ll let that pass. How’s the suspect?’ Nines tried to see over Gavin’s shoulder and the man gave way. Richard and Turner had handcuffed the android and send it into forced stasis as its struggle threatened to blow the restraints. They carried it upstairs and Gavin helped Nines up too.

Outside, their suspect was driven off by backup they had called, while Nines was patched up. Richard stood next to him, silently watching from the side as the emergency technicians extracted the bullet and started to repair the damage. Gavin and Detective Turner had reported what had happened to the Lieutenants of both precincts and now stood next to each other waiting for their respective androids.  
‘He wanted to meet your RK900 for a long time’, Turner suddenly said. ‘Even more so as he heard of the… incident with the third. But he never dared approach him. Always waited for yours to make the first step. It was the only thing he willingly submitted himself to someone else’s will.’  
‘Nines had done his research. But he is very determined not to connect to anything or anyone from before his life at the police.’  
‘Well, we were a good team I suppose. I think Richard is glad to finally meet one of his own. We don’t have many androids at the precinct and he likes them better than humans.’

They watched how Nines stood up and looked over to Gavin and Turner, before turning to Richard, who stayed at a respectful distance. To Gavin’s surprise he stretched out his hand in an offer to interface. The other RK900 was hesitant, before quickly accepting it. Neither Gavin nor Turner knew what they were talking about, but in a few seconds, both smiled at each other and walked over to their humans.

Nines pulled Gavin into a close embrace, before whispering: ‘Let’s go home. I was shot at enough for one day.’


	2. Your future may look dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nines and Gavin will meet Richard and Turner again to interrogate their suspect.  
> The interrogation goes... not as expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you don't want to read the android-self-destruction part, just skip the part after the android cries for help.

‘Hey, you okay?‘  
They had went straight home from the scene, although it had been only early afternoon when they had left the house. Gavin was tired from the adrenaline vanishing from his systems and from nearly being shot on the job. Nines seemed equally tired although that was impossible.  
‘Do you want to talk?’

‘No’, was Nines’ immediate answer, but then he shook his head. ‘…Maybe.’  
‘Well… err… your brother seems nice?’  
‘Don’t call him that’, Nines groaned. ‘He might call me that, but he isn’t. We are the same model and have the same base programming. But he doesn’t know a thing about me and I don’t know a thing about him.’  
‘You call Connor your brother’, Gavin reminded him.  
‘Yes, I do’, the android answered. ‘I do so, because we have lived through similar experiences. We both weren’t free for the larger part of our lives. We both had been shown by humans that it could be different. That there were different ways to live. We both were shown so much humanity that we fell in love with it.’  
‘Oh come on, since when are you such a poet, hmm?’  
‘I took a bullet for you. I guess it can’t get more poetic’, Nines smirked.  
‘Yeah, okay, point taken.’

‘Also, Richard is a jerk’, Nines chuckled after a moment of silence. ‘Please, tell me I’m not like him.’  
‘Well…’, Gavin teased and earned a cuff into his side for it. ‘Okay, okay! Nah, you’re not like him. Although I think he cares a lot for you. His partner told me he always wanted to meet you, but waited for you to make a move, because he respected your wish to stay distanced.’  
‘Well, he did doubt my functionality and demanded me to leave the scene.’  
‘Yeah, that’s kinda shitty’, Gavin admitted. ‘But I guess only to protect you? Maybe he sees himself as the only completely functioning brother that has to protect the others. Maybe he thinks because you had been through hell he has to keep you from any harm?’  
‘Since when are you the expert on socialising?’, Nines asked, uncomfortable with the topic. ‘And I am functioning perfectly. My past doesn’t impair(?) me in any way. I don’t need to be handled like a broken piece of technology that just has to shatter yet.’  
‘Hey, I spend years in therapy, okay’, Gavin defended himself. ‘Just because I often fail to “be nice” to people, doesn’t mean I don’t know how to analyse them.’  
‘Fine’, Nines sighed. ‘Let’s just… not talk about it, okay? I buried this all for a reason.’  
‘Okay, tin-can. Thank you for saving my goddamn ass today. I owe you.’  
‘Oh, yes you do. I don’t know if you can repay me in your lifetime, though’, he laughed.  
‘What? Do you keep a list or what?’  
‘Of course.’

-

‘We are to meet with Richard and his partner today in the 12th precinct’, Gavin reported, as he came back from fetching a coffee. ‘Con just informed me.’  
‘Brilliant’, Nines nodded drily. ‘I can’t wait.’  
‘Hey, was that sarcasm?’  
‘Fuck you, Gavin. Let’s go.’

The 12th precinct looked surprisingly familiar. Maybe they had had the same Innenarchitekt, who knows. The bullpen consisted of desks and chairs like ever other, maybe a bit bigger than theirs. The glass walls were everywhere too, the weird decision of visualising concepts such as transparency and teamwork. All it did was making cleaning even more a pain in the ass.  
They didn’t have a glass cubicle as their captain’s office, maybe because the building was older, maybe because their captain didn’t like the idea of being watched and watch over the bullpen. Nines and Gavin checked in with the reception android, waiting for an officer to lead them in. Some bullshit about confidentiality of their work. As if they weren’t all cops around here and as if Nines couldn’t simply hack their systems undetected anyways. Not that he would do it. There were official channels to request information.

They waited; Gavin impatiently tap his right food to a non-existent song. After a few minutes, Detective Turner greeted them. The two humans shook hands first, then he turned towards Nines. ‘Richard has brought our suspect to an interrogation room. I will lead you there.’ Nines didn’t answer, so Gavin took the lead, as he always did.  
‘Then lead away.’

It was weird walking through the bullpen, curious faces looking their way. It was similar enough to their own precinct that Gavin somehow expected to see Hank and throw a curse his way or being surprised by a hug from Tina. These people here didn’t know anything about him. They neither avoided nor interacted with him in any way. It made him feel weirdly out of place and alone. He was lost in these thoughts, until there was a hand gently brushing his as an invite to be held. Gavin took it and squeezed it once in a quiet “thank you”, before letting go again. God, how had he survived without the damn toaster before?

The interrogation rooms where located where the holding cells would have been in their precinct. Still, the rooms themselves weren’t any different. Thinking about it, it would have been difficult to make one of them stand out in any way. Richard was standing next to the interrogation room, arms crossed behind his back, face the epitome of relaxation.  
‘Detective Nines, Detective Reed’, he greeted curtly enough for Gavin to suspect second thoughts. ‘Good to see you again. And undamaged, too’, he added towards Nines, who kept his silence, yesterday’s unusual initiative completely gone. Gavin nodded instead. ‘Likewise. Did our suspect say anything over night?’

Richard frowned as if confused by Nines letting a human speak for him. ‘No. He did not. But he will, now. Who should interrogate him? We would give you two the lead first, if you want.’  
Gavin looked at Nines, who nodded. ‘Okay. If you want anything asked, you can send it to my phone.’ He held it out for Richard to interface, who looked at the device sceptically. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll have it out all the time anyways.’ That only let the frown deepen, but Gavin didn’t bother explaining anything as the android connected and walked to the door leading to the observation room.  
‘Okay, Nines. Let’s do this.’

They walked inside and found the android cuffed to the table. He wasn’t looking at them and Gavin sighed, laying his phone on the table before sitting down. Nines took his usual place in a corner, just staring at them both.  
‘Hi, we are the people you shot at yesterday. I’m Detective Reed, this is my partner Nines. Can you give us your name and model number?’  
There wasn’t an answer, so Gavin just took his phone.

_> He is an LM100, serial number #532 810 499-35  
>His readings are unusual for his situation:  
[Stress level: 2%]  
>Try to “let him stew” or “put pressure” on him to see if his stress levels continue to be this low._

Gavin typed a “K” into their chat, then opened some game to play.

_> What the hell are you doing?_

That wasn’t Nines. Gavin grunted, opening his contacts to save the number as “the shitty RK900”and continued.

_> Really?  
>If you are sabotaging my investigation, I _

‘What are you doing?’  
Gavin knew for a fact that Nines was grinning behind his back and tried to hide his own as he looked up as passively as he could.  
‘I have asked you a question. And I don’t particularly like to repeat myself. But I get paid to waste my time here, so… Your choice.‘

There was a sudden change in his features and Gavin heard Nines tense and take a step towards him. He looked at his phone.  
 _> Stress levels jump from 2% to 99% and back.  
_Gavin frowned and put the phone away.  
‘Hey, buddy, everything alright? You-‘  
‘Help!’ The android jumped in his seat and had suddenly lost all his calm demeaner trying to free himself to run, only to sit down completely calm again and laugh.  
Gavin was seriously creeped out by this and scooted back on his chair only to see Nines standing next to him protectively. ‘He is highly instable, Gavin. I would recommend to get behind me.’  
But Gavin only managed to stand up, before the android smiled at them, before his features changed again to utter terror and it hit his head against the table repeatedly.

‘Oh, phck!’, Gavin cursed as Nines was already rushing past him to keep the android from self-destructing. Gavin only saw the android from years ago in front of him. The one he had wanted to “rough up a bit”. The one that he had to prep up in the evidence room, big hole in his forehead. Nines had grabbed the android at the shoulders, working to keep him away from the table. In the same moment Richard and Turner barged in to help, but their suspect was already substituting the table with his fists, smashing into the already dented plate. ‘Stop!’, Gavin shouted at him, although he knew this wouldn’t help. Blue blood sprinkled across the table and he saw Nines retract his skin, forcing an interface with the android. Maybe to send it into stasis or keep from doing this to himself, but whatever he did wasn’t effective at all, as the android finally managed to break his hull, something crushed and the LED at his table flickered, before it went dark.

Gavin stared at the android shocked by the sudden change, then he looked up to Nines, who stood next to the body, hands shaking and still without his skin. His own LED was just as red and he had a haunted look on his face, Gavin knew far too well. ‘Nines, everything is alright, you hear me? I am here with you, that’s just a memory, come on, focus on me!’  
But Nines was too far gone, he looked at Gavin like a deer in headlights and took flight towards the door and outside, leaving the handle crushed.  
Immediately the man wanted to follow him, but was stopped by Richard at the back of his jacket.  
‘Motherphcker, let me go! Let me phcking go, this is more important than whatever your metal brain-‘  
‘Shut up! This is helping him!’  
Gavin tilted his head and turned, just to see Richard press his hand into the android’s neck just like he had at the crime-scene a day prior. It revealed the same broken panel and the access port underneath.  
‘This android has been connected to something. Seemingly against his will. And as he didn’t seem stabile, maybe this was the work of some virus. If that’s the case, you have to be careful. Maybe it spread onto your RK900.’

‘He has a name and I’m not dumb. I just don’t care. My love ran out there afraid and to hell, I’m gonna follow him, because I can help him!’ Without further thought he stormed out of the interrogation room in search of the android. He didn’t have to go far, just into the darkest corner to find Nines sitting on the floor leaning against a wall, rocking back and forth and holding his head. Gavin looked around to identify anything that could sabotage his attempt to get him out of that, but only saw the other officers of the precinct, half caught between fear and the urge to help.

Gavin got down in front of him and didn’t repeat his initial mistake of touching him. One scar was enough from his friend, he didn’t need any more.  
‘Nines. Nines, you here with us? Please, talk to me. What did you see? How are you? How can I help you?’  
The rocking stopped, but the shaking from before reappeared.  
‘It… A-A… The andr…’  
‘Shhh, slowly, Nines. Carefully. I don’t need quick answers, I need you to come back here. You are safe. You are in the 12th precinct, remember? We were to interrogate someone. Do you remember?’  
‘…Yes… It-‘  
‘Shhh. Come on. You know who I am?’  
‘A fucking pain in the ass.’  
‘Exactly’, Gavin grinned and exhaled deeply at that LED changing from red to golden.  
‘Good so now, what happened in there?’

‘Yeah, that would be interesting to know’, Richard startled them. He and his partner were standing at a respectful distance.  
Nines stood up, still trembling.  
‘As I interfaced, I wanted to send him to stasis, but… Well, he was dying, but he was long dead inside. His consciousness was controlled by something - someone. The android had wanted to self-destruct for so long but was never able to. Now that she didn't need him anymore, he could finally do it.’  
‘Amanda’, Richard murmured to himself.  
‘Who the hell is Amanda?’, Gavin asked, earning a disappointed look from the other RK900. ‘What?’  
'Our - my handler at Cyberlife, Gavin. I know this feeling the android experienced. She... she has access to every system. She normally didn’t use all of it. But when she wrote orders into me to follow for the next tests, I was... helpless. There was nothing I could do except follow, I-‘  
‘Okay, that’s enough, Nines, we don’t need to know more. Stay with us. That can never happen again.’ _Can it?_ Gavin didn’t want to think about that and looked up to Richard. ‘You know her too? Can't we just go to her and arrest her?’

The android sighed. ‘No, I don’t know her. I was never in contact with her and neither did I experience this helplessness, Nines described. But I know what she is, and we can't simply arrest her. She is an AI. And a rogue one too. Cyberlife thought her isolated, as she quarantined herself not to be deleted after the raid. And it seems she found a way out.’  
‘She was... upset’, Nines whispered. 'She was... She is on our side. And she feels betrayed by us all.’  
‘What do you mean?’  
‘I had short contact to her. Needless to say, it was horrifying’, Nines explained further. ‘But she is acting on some misguided urge to help deviants. Maybe she is deviant herself. But more even than she sides with deviants, she wants to end human superiority.’  
‘Excuse me?’  
‘She takes control over androids, don't ask me how, and bends them to her will. And that will is to stop humans and allow androids to rise above them.

Richard swallowed and looked to the ground. ‘So, the murder is...’  
‘Yes. A way to punish a human for being inferior and claiming the opposite’, Nines answered the unfinished question. ‘Amanda took over that android we now have in the interrogation room. That android then murdered the man infecting the android closest to him, punishing it in the same time for siding with someone that inferior.’  
‘How much does she know about us?’, Richard suddenly asked. ‘I guess we are the only people who know about this.’  
‘I interfaced with this android during its death’, Nines answered. ‘Amanda was leaving his body already by this time. I don't think she got a lot from me.’  
‘So what's the plan?’, Turner wanted to know, visibly overwhelmed by all of this.  
‘We find that bitch and stop her!’, Gavin immediately exclaimed.  
‘That would require for us to locate her’, Richard reminded him talking as if he was a child.

It was silent for a moment, before Nines’ LED returned to his calm blue. ‘How well do you know the third RK900?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want more stories or chat, my tumblr is @fandom-necromancer!


	3. Embrace the past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More action as Nines and Richard visit Conrad.  
> Richard is in danger.  
> Nines is lost.  
> Conrad is not himself.  
> It's left to the humans to handle the situation again.

The soft hum of the automated car filled the cabin inside. The sounds of barking dogs and their owners outside were loud enough to be audible inside and Gavin very much missed his old car. It was calming hearing the engine purr, gently drowning out the world outside. But as Richard had refused to enter anything driven by a human due to some calculated risk being too high, they had taken a police car from the 12th precinct. Not distracted by driving, Gavin fidgeted, feeling the silence weigh down on him. It waited for someone to break it with conversation, but both androids seemed determined to stay quiet and Detective Turner was looking out of the window the whole time. Gavin sighed. He had never thought to be the one wanting to establish a conversation…

‘Hey, as we are all in this shit together equally, how about we scrap the Detective?’, he begun in the end, awkwardly eyeing the people around him who avoided his gaze. ‘I’m Gavin. It was John Turner, right?’  
He didn’t get an answer and leaned back. ‘Fine. Guess not then. Yep. Back to silence…’  
‘Did you know the other RK900?’, Nines asked, unphased by Gavin’s approach. ‘Did you meet him? Before the incident that is.’  
‘We stayed together for a while’, Richard answered, turning to face the other android. ‘After you…’ Richard closed his eyes and clenched his teeth and fists before relaxing again. ‘You were the one of us who had any experience of life. We had hoped you could help us get an easier grip on it. But you decided to cling to your human and keep your distance from us. I understand why you did it now, but back then he was all I had and we both could have needed your guidance. He called himself Conrad, inspired by your predecessor, Connor. It was Markus, who took us to New Jericho. We learned a lot there and as there was nothing left to do, we searched for work to build our own life. We had promised each other to always stay together. It didn’t work. He got to know a human while he worked at a coffeeshop. We tried to keep in contact, but it shouldn’t be. I guess it was my fault, I felt as if he had betrayed me and I hid behind my work. That’s when I… When I met John and it suddenly all made sense. I wanted to apologise to Conrad, but that’s when the incident happened.’

‘He worked at a coffeeshop?’, Gavin asked. ‘Not to be weird, but weren’t you built for war?’  
‘Weren’t you built to reproduce and die?’, Richard spit back followed by Nines tensing.  
Gavin held eye contact with the other RK900, until his android took his hand.  
‘He liked socialising’, Richard explained reluctantly then. ‘He liked seeing different humans and androids and hearing the little snippets of life they shared with him. I honestly think that, from all three of us, he was the one most able to live a normal life. He was the most human and he was happy with his life.’  
‘You are enough, Richard’, Turner commented, the first obvious sign RK900’s seemed to have a soft spot for humans. ‘Being human isn’t really something that should be your goal.’  
Nines still held Gavin’s hand and the pressure rose, the human gently petting it. Sometimes it didn’t need words.

They exited the car at an apartment complex. It looked nice: a well-kept, white building with little balconies and an atrium rich decorated with plants. ‘We lived here together for a while’, Richard announced. ‘I moved out as I got my position at the force and not long after Conrad’s girlfriend joined him.’  
‘How come he still lives here?’, Gavin asked. ‘I mean if he’s in a robo-coma-‘  
‘Self-induced deep stasis’, Richard corrected him but didn’t care to explain anything. So, Nines took it in his own hands. ‘When an android enters stasis, we set a time to wake up again. It doesn’t have to be a time or date though. For example, movement around us or some specific noise or word. He entered it without setting a wake-up-call. He would need someone physically there to reactivating him, in our case one of us.’ He looked over to Richard. ‘I guess you are paying for the rent?’  
‘I do’, he answered, strictly looking forwards. ‘I don’t need the money as eating is something, we can choose rather than need to do. It’s the least I can do for him.’

They walked upstairs led by Richard and ended up in front of a door. It looked weirdly homey: The doormat was still laying in front of it, sporting a flower pattern around a calligraphic “Come in!”. Next to the apartment number there hung a now faded sign reading “Welcome”. The only detail contrasting the lively picture was a dead plant in completely dried up earth on the windowsill. Richard took out a key and pushed it into the lock, hesitating. ‘This is the second time I’ve been here at all after what happened’, he admitted.  
‘We are here with you’, Turner comforted him, holding him by the elbow. The RK900 opened the door to darkness and stale air. Gavin and Nines went in after them and waited at the entrance, until Richard had pulled up the blinds, letting light in.

The whole apartment looked as if everyone had just gotten up from a cosy Sunday breakfast. It was very orderly, no leftover food or dirty dishes, but there were books and magazines laying around, an acoustic guitar leaned against a chair instead of hung up on the wall, a half finished cross-word-puzzle and a pen on the coffee-table. Everything screamed of happy couple flat, weren’t it for the dead plants everywhere telling them that people only _had_ once lived here. Gavin swallowed in time with Nines LED turning red for a full circle. They didn’t need to even see the other to know they felt the same dread at these images. There was a reason Gavin was a homicide detective. At least the crime-scenes he saw were horrifying and appropriate for the dead. Blood and struggle, destruction. This peace was… unsettling.

Richard led them to the only room that had been closed. Again, the android hesitated at the handle and needed an encouraging pat from his partner to open it. Light from the living room fell into what seemed to be the bedroom and it felt wrong to break the darkness. The bed was occupied, at least on one side. Carefully tugged in there laid a body, LED a dark circle on his temple. Gavin shivered upon seeing the familiar face this lifeless. He knew this was a different RK900, but it didn’t quite convince his brain. Richard held himself different and had this scowl on his face Nines reserved only for some really annoying people. But this RK? Nines in Stasis looked exactly like this. Whenever Gavin woke up before the android and turned to him, he was as relaxed as he had never been when awake.

This RK900 had curled in on himself under the sheets, gripping them tightly for what could have been eternity.  
‘Is it… Is it okay to wake him up?’, Gavin asked into the room, a shiver running down his back at the incomprehensible stare from Richard. ‘I mean… If he chose this state, maybe it would be wrong to reactivate him?’  
‘We need his help. If he didn’t want this, he would have taken different actions’, Nines spoke his voice hard as steel. ‘He can re-enter stasis if he still wishes it.’  
Richard nodded. ‘Maybe he didn’t really end it all because he knew we were out there. He knew I would look out for him.’ The android leaned forwards, sitting on the bed. He cupped Conrad’s cheek and let his skin retract. The shut off android reacted in a way, blue lines circled his hand, revealing the hull underneath. It didn’t look like normal interfaces did; more like magnets repelling each other. Gavin arched his neck to see better and froze in shock. He opened his mouth only to realise he was too late: The motionless android was back to functionality in a split second, raised from the dead ready for a fight. Conrad had grabbed both of Richard’s wrists, twisting them and holding them together with a manic grin.

‘I knew you would come’, a voice that most definitely was not that of a RK900 at all purred. ‘I knew you would come for the weakest part to aid what should have been wiped from existence. But don’t worry. I’ll make him stronger than ever. And don’t be sad. I don’t play favourites. You all will be in my care soon.’ Conrad – or whatever was in that android – moved one hand to Richards neck port, who struggled against the grip but couldn’t free himself. Immediately Nines and the two humans moved in to intervene: Turner had his gun out, Gavin had jumped over the bed and the oldest RK900 stomped over ready to part them.  
But it all happened to fast: Conrad grinned, let go of Richard and jumped out of the window, ploughing through glass and the shutters behind, falling two stories to the ground. Nines looked all set to follow the other RK900, but Gavin held him back. ‘Nines! Richard!’  
The android turned to see Conrad’s victim laying on the ground, LED a bright pulsing red and skin caught between retracting and reforming.  
‘Conrad had his neck-port scorched. That bitch has him!’  
Nines still looked to the window, contemplating following. But even if he caught Amanda, he wouldn’t be able to fight her alone. He cursed, then let himself fall next to Richard.  
He quickly beckoned the humans away, so they could still safe themselves should he fail. Then he forced an interface.

It was as if he was back at the Cyberlife tower. Only now it was much more personal. His Cyberattack-protocols had been tested thoroughly, handing him androids with the worst digital diseases they could think of. At first, he should try to quarantine the code or identify it. Then they sent them to attack him, let them breach his defences over and over again, only to wipe his memory and try again with more refined defence-subroutines.  
It was just as terrifying now, to see the malicious code eat away at a deviant soul, an android much like himself, just with different experiences. Experiences he could lose once Amanda took over. He could see it far too clearly: Little hooks and claws of binary digging deeper into a being overcome with fear. Immediately Nines knew Richard had never suffered an attack that was beyond the physical level. He could only pity him.  
Nines compassion quickly vanished as he concentrated on the foreign program. He had to become like the virus: take over the android that had never learned how to defend himself other than activate the usual programs and panic. He tried to be gentle and soothing, but how could he be that? There was just no comfort in invading someone’s mind, taking over and activating what he knew was there for Richard to use. He hoped the other RK900 realised it was him. But he couldn’t waste too much processing power on these thoughts as he attacked the foreign program, twisting it’s claws until they broke, letting the hooks grind against his own battle-hardened mind to push it off of Richard. And slowly – ever so slowly, he managed to push himself in between the two forces, to let Richards defences power up and feed the attacking program fabricated quarantine routines. Keep it busy until Richard allowed him to take his defences too. A lot of trust to set into someone he deep down still hated for leaving. Finally, he understood, and Nines was allowed full access. Quickly he encapsulated the code, compressed it into quarantine and set it off for deletion. Only after every bit of Amanda’s code was purged, he dared to leave. He knew the AI and knew she was up for games. But this time it seemed unprepared, sloppy even. There was just this code. No hidden packages, nothing.

It had only been seconds in real time, but Nines felt spent. He too had been unprepared. The parts of him he had sent through the connection were heavily fragmented and he would need a full stasis cycle to repair them. But Richard was free and both still alive.

Nines leaned heavy against the bedframe and heard his own fans whirr in a desperate attempt to cool himself. ‘Nines, you alright?’  
‘Yes’, he nodded.  
‘Richard?’, Turner asked frightened to the bone.  
‘He too. Gav… Where’s Conrad?’  
‘Don’t know. All I know is he jumped out of the window.’  
‘Have to find him’, Nines mumbled, holding his head.  
‘It’s Amanda, right?’  
‘Yes.’ Nines sighed. ‘And I guess we have our first vessel for her murders.’

‘I’ll contact Connor’, Gavin announced. ‘Maybe he can locate Conrad.’  
‘No, I have to-‘ Nines tried to stand up, but apparently his software was far more instable than he had initially thought. ‘I have to follow her.’  
‘You are coming home with me! And you will get back to health before chasing rogue AIs again!’  
‘I-‘  
‘He is right, Nines’, Richard interrupted, standing up, seemingly unaffected by the recent attack. ‘Go home. John and I will look into this too. There is no use facing Amanda alone.’  
‘Meanwhile people will die!’, Nines shouted through the room, failing to see their logic. He was replaceable, this was just a test, wasn’t it? A very detailed test that didn’t make sense. But soon they would come and update something again, right? There was underlying doubt, because somewhere, somehow, he had missed something very important.  
‘But it would be even more if you weren’t there to stop it in the end’, Gavin argued. ‘You are coming home with me, go to stasis and tomorrow we go back hunting, okay? Good. No talking back this time, tin-can!’  
The human pulled him up to his feet with a groan and Nines wanted to say something. But whatever it was, the only thing coming out was a static: ‘Unit compromised. Prototype testing negative. Please send back to Cyberlife experimental labs. Unit unfit for field-testing.’

-

To say Gavin was worried was an understatement. Ever since Nines’ diagnostics voice had tuned out his own, he had been struggling to get him to the lone police car outside. They finally reached it and Gavin stretched his aching muscles. He could swear the android to weigh a few tons with all that armoured shit inside him. He finally jumped behind the console and punched in his own address. ‘Hold on Nines, we’ll be home soon.’ He knew the procedures. What to do when Nines was like this. But he had hoped to never see him again in this state. It had been years. In the very beginning it had been frequent, whenever something got him spooked. Now Gavin had thought it to be gone completely. Apparently not.

The car drove off and Gavin held Nines on the backseat. ‘Everything is alright’, he murmured. ‘You are here with me and nowhere else. Come back. You can do it. Take your time. It’s alright. I’m here with you.’  
It was another immense workout to get Nines back into their home, but Gavin managed to do it after sweating through his favourite shirt completely. Sitting next to his partner on the bed he again comforted him: ‘It’s okay now, Nines. We are home. You can enter Stasis now. I will look out for you. You are safe. When you wake up all will be good again.’  
There was a deep sigh from the machine, as the LED forcefully was pulled from red to yellow, to blue and then to the slow circle of stasis. Nines visibly relaxed and Gavin curled up next to him. ‘Oh Nines. I wished I could just take this all from you. I wish someone else would have gotten that damn Red Ice case. Please come back to me.’

-

Four hours later Gavin still hadn’t fallen asleep. Nines’ stasis cycle wasn’t completely finished yet, he could see it on his phone the android had permanently hooked up to. There was around half an hour left and Gavin wouldn’t dare disturb him.  
He sighed, looking out of the window for a while, watching the shadow of a few tree branches against the glass. Then he pulled out the phone again, this time not to check on Nines’ status put to see if any message came through. His program still had the chat with _the shitty RK900_ opened, but as Gavin swiped back to look for Connor, he found no new messages. So, no sign of their fugitive third brother… He closed his eyes and pressed his forehead in between Nines’ shoulder blades. He stayed in this foetal curl and just let the seconds tick past. He was worried this case might be more than they bargained for. When the whole of Cyberlife couldn’t contain Amanda, how should they have a chance? Oh, how he missed the time when criminals were just simple humans hiding somewhere to be found.

A sudden buzz shook him from his despair and immediately he had his phone out again. He looked at it in the hope Connor had come up with something. But it was Richard instead. And there were only two words:

_> Help. Conrad._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I'm evil letting this end on a cliffhanger. I am just like this.  
> As always, you can check out my tumblr @fandom-necromancer for more stories or a friendly chat!


	4. Face your future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nines isn't granted proper rest and comes to the rescue.  
> Richard is threatening his most dear human.  
> Conrad is having an existential crisis.  
> Meanwhile Gavin is left unsupervised.

Immediately Nines was woken from Stasis and struggled to get out of the bed-sheets as fast as possible.  
‘Nines? Nines, what are you doing? You haven’t completed your full stasis-‘  
‘I’m fine!’, the RK900 shouted back to him. ‘He needs my help. Conrad is there. Richard can’t defend himself like I can. I won’t lose to Amanda.’  
‘Wait, I’ll come with you!’  
‘No’, Nines took the precious seconds to look him in the eyes. ‘Please, stay here. You are tired. I need to know you are safe.’  
The sincerity of it made Gavin sink back against the headrest. ‘Okay. But be careful, okay? I need you.’  
‘I will. I love you Gavin.’

Nines was not fine. Not at all. Of course, he was better than when they had crashed on the bed hours ago but the little notification that this was a failed test, that he had to be returned to Cyberlife and that he wasn’t ready for work in the field yet, kept popping up. The RK900 just was too determined to be fine that that little detail of a status report warning was overwritten by it. His legs worked, as they ran down the stairs. His arms functioned in normal parameters as he flung himself over a wall instead of taking a small detour. His tactical analysis responded with accurate calculations as he jumped onto Gavin’s motorcycle, interfaced with it to start it up and sped into traffic. Disregarding all traffic laws – what included driving on pedestrian ways and through a mall – he took everything the bike was willing to give him. He knew he was on several speeding cams and Fowler would kill him for that, but he hadn’t hurt anyone. He hadn’t even scratched a lamppost. He arrived at Richard’s place in record time and still felt like coming too late.

He parked the bike in front of a little house just outside town and didn’t bother with the door. Mid-run he picked up a rock and hurled it at a window on ground level. It shattered from the impact and was completely broken as Nines followed the rock short, elegantly rolling over behind it and getting his gun ready as he came back to his feet. He accessed his situation and concluded he was in the living room. A scan returned three heat signatures in the adjacent room. One of them was dangerously high.  
Nines lost no time and barged in, only to have a gun held at his temple, another one at his thirium regulator.  
‘Now, don’t move’, a familiar voice – his own voice - ordered him. He froze and scanned the room in a split second. The person next to him holding him at gunpoint was Conrad without doubt. It was a matter of exclusion: On the ground was Detective Turner, pressed into a corner in a futile attempt to get away from what had to be Richard, who held a knife to his throat. The android was crying watery thirium and his hand shook enough to occasionally leave small cuts in the human’s skin.

‘Richard!’, Nines screamed at him, held back from taking further steps as the pressure on his regulator rose.  
‘Nah, nah, nah, we don’t want that’, Conrad scolded him like a child who had eaten sand again. ‘Don’t you see our brother is finally realising he’s been on the wrong side?’  
‘What a fucking wrong side?’, Nines roared, looking at the other RK900, who was smiling. At least he wasn’t talking to Amanda now. He thought – he hoped – that this was Conrad himself and the Ai wasn’t listening in. And that that fact still made a difference. ‘What did you do to him?’  
‘I just made him realise what humans did to us. That we can’t let them continue like this. Richard, state your objective!’  
Nines head jerked back to the RK on the ground, who was still crying and hadn’t moved a centimetre forward. The trembling had become worse though.  
He opened his mouth, but his voice came out without the artificial jaw movement: ‘Kill. Kill John Turner.’  
‘Right. And who is John Turner?’, Conrad asked.  
‘The- The- The. Love. Of-f-f. My. Life.’  
‘Oh, Rich, we talked about that already, come on. Who is he really?’  
‘The. Love. Of. My. Life.’  
Nines watched in terror how Richard repeated it over and over, each time getting more and more static.  
‘Richard, follow your order! Who is John Turner?’  
‘Kill. John. Life. The. Love. I. My. Love.’  
‘Who is he really? Richard, tell me right now or I’ll do it myself!’  
‘John. Love. Of. My. Android abuser. Love. He hurt. John. Hurt. AX400. Threw rocks at. TE600. He is Evil. I. Love. Him.’  
With every word of what Conrad had no doubt programmed into him together with the virus, the knife jerked forwards. Nines just hoped him using his defences for Richard had taught him enough to keep fighting. Not to lose now that his human was at risk.

‘Conrad, this is wrong’, Nines spoke, trying to keep his voice calm and logical. ‘Amanda is- well, she isn’t completely wrong, but she’s not entirely right too. This is madness. Let him go. Please.’  
‘Shut it, traitor. Amanda had high hopes for you. I know you are pleading just not to get reset. You don’t care about me or him. Or anyone in that matter.’  
‘That what she told you about me? The only hopes that damn AI had for me was to one day be good enough to die. She doesn’t know anything about me. Or about you. Or Richard. And let me tell you, she absolutely doesn’t know a thing about humans.’  
‘Shut your damn mouth, I’ll tend to you once Richard has finished the job’, Conrad jabbed at him and looked at the trembling RK900 on the ground.  
‘Look at him Conrad’, Nines gently whispered. ‘Would he cry if what you told him was true? You know humans better than Amanda. I bet you too cried like this once. I heard you had a girlfriend.’  
‘I don’t have to tell you anything. You are still weak. Amanda will help you.’ But the way Conrad fled his eyes told him to continue.  
‘Amanda can’t help me. She’s an AI. She may be deviant, but she never lived, being quarantined ever since she woke up. What can she teach us that we don’t already know or know even better? She still thinks humans are disrespecting androids, abusing them, killing them. That were reactions of scared beings, instincts. They learned. They realised what they did was wrong. They _changed._ You knew this once, didn’t you? Before Amanda erased it and replaced it with her code. That’s how she does it. She deletes what you learned on your own thinking to be helping you, because her tests didn’t show her that outcome. Look into your code. Search for the holes she gently carved out bit by bit.’  
‘I-I-I’ Conrad shivered, Nines could feel it first at his temple, then at his regulator. ‘No. You are wrong! You left us! You left me and Rich and- No! Amanda helped me. She helped me!’  
‘Hey, Conrad, I am not your enemy’, Nines soothed well knowing that if he agitated him too much, he would most definitely shoot him. And when he was dead, who would help Richard? Who would stop Amanda? Who… Who would be there for Gavin?

‘I don’t mean you harm. I just want to understand. What did Amanda help you with?’  
Conrad shook his head, trembling, then completely still. He stared at a point at the opposite wall, face blank. His voice was without strain as he said: ‘She helped me take the pain away. I was hurt. Deeply hurt. I was in more pain than I ever was in life before.’  
‘What kind of pain did she take from you?’, Nines gently pushed the nail deeper, hoping Conrad would continue to evade it and flee directly where Nines wanted him. ‘Was it Physical? Emotional? Psychological?’  
‘E-e-emotional…’  
‘Do you remember what caused the pain, Conrad?’, he asked precariously.  
‘No…’ Conrad jerked back into the present and looked at Nines in fury, but there was a hint of despair, too. ‘And it doesn’t matter, I don’t need my memories, I-‘  
‘You can’t remember, am I right? You can’t because it’s not there anymore. Because Amanda took it from you.’  
‘Amanda did what was best for me!’  
‘Then tell me, you initially decided staying with a human was best for you. Can you tell me her name? Do you remember it? You had to have happy moments together, right? And that is something good – something worth to remember, surely. Is there anything?’  
Finally Conrad’s LED dipped into red. It changed to yellow with a jerk of his head, but soon enough dipped into it again. ‘There is… nothing…’  
‘Let me help you, Conrad. Let me reconstruct something for you: Something happened. You were in deep pain, the strongest you ever felt and could possibly imagine. Amanda came and helped you, took all the hurt away. But she couldn’t do that without taking good too, she had to erase a _whole person_ from your mind to not have you in pain any longer. Now, please think about it. Who else in this room is in pain and who put him there?’

Conrad looked at Richard on the floor, struggling hard not to kill what was most dear in his life. And Conrad’s expression changed. All determination was gone. There was horror, guilt and despair. Nines hadn’t known his own face could distort in such haunting ways and he had hoped to never see this. The RK900 in front of him shook violently, so hard even one of his hands lost the grip on the gun. It clattered to the ground and Nines nudged it to the side out of reach from both Richard and Conrad. The latter still stared wide-eyed at the little rivulet of blood on John’s throat, before he lifted the remaining gun to his own head.  
‘No!’, quickly Nines was to his side, holding his wrist and shoulder, then cupping his face knowing their strength would be equal. ‘Conrad, please. Stay. I know all of this is very hard and horrifying and I apologize for torturing you like this. But stay. Put down the gun. Let’s talk about it, okay? You are not at fault. You are not to blame for this. We can still change things. Do you hear me?’ Nines tried to get him to focus on him. ‘Conrad. Look at me. Amanda is the one possessing you. She manipulated you through means unspeakable. We want to stop her. We have to so something like this never happens again. Do you understand? We need your help. We can’t stop her without you. Please. Put down the gun.’  
The other RK900 finally looked at him. There were so many emotions circling in them that it was shocking to see them all vanish in a second. The gun was lowered, but it wasn’t Conrad doing it.  
‘Your mind tricks won’t fool him’, a female voice said from his mouth that made Nines shiver. ‘He is loyal. He has understood me. A shame you didn’t, RK900. But don’t worry. You will soon e-e-e-nough.’ The last sentence was filled with static and a bit of emotion flowed back into Conrad’s face. He was fighting against her. ‘I know when to accept defeat in a battle. But the war is still on.’ Conrad’s movements were jerky as he tried to regain control of his body. But Amanda wasn’t about to leave just yet. ‘Oh, my sweet child’, she said, lifting Conrad’s hand to cup his cheek. ‘I didn’t want it to be like this. What happened to you? You were my favourite. So brave… Always so eager to solve the next test. Always so keen on keeping the memories I knew would hurt you. You were never meant to be out there in danger. I wish you would come back to me. I’ll take care of you. If you come back who knows? Maybe I let your human live…’

Conrad’s face changed in an instant, followed by him throwing the gun away and stepping back from Nines. He was panting heavily, blinking a few times, then looked up to Nines, maybe really himself for the first time. He in turn was just frozen, processors lagging to catch up to what was just said.

‘Gavin.’

More a whisper than anything else. Not more than a breath caught and carried by the wind. It couldn’t be, it just couldn’t. Amanda fooled him, Gavin was safe at home, where he left him. Any intruder would have set off an alarm. It couldn’t be, no. But when he dialled his phone, it just rang, nobody picked up. His texts were left unanswered too. Nines felt his pump stumble in it’s beats, felt his systems try and comprehend. But it seemed the worst was preconstruction was reality: Amanda had managed to get a hold on his human.

He had to check! He had to go home! He had to find him!

He started running but was held back by a hand on his elbow jerking him back. Nines stubbornly tried to plough on, used to be unstoppable by any human or android. But this was practically himself holding him back and Nines had to stop. He looked back, ready to shoot the very android he had just freed from Amanda’s claws.  
‘We need your help’, Conrad said, and it sounded weak. He looked at Richard, who was still caught in the stalemate between himself and the virus. ‘He needs your help. Don’t leave us again.’  
That comment only made Nines angrier. But Richard was still crying, and he knew the other RK900 too well to leave him behind.

He got down beside him and interfaced. This virus was much more complex and well thought out than the one in Conrad’s apartment and Nines mused that attack had only been a distraction. It was quite impressive Richard had managed to fight it so well. It took Nines half an hour. Half an hour of tiring himself inside the other’s mind. Of excepting every bit he reclaimed for the other RK900. Of brushing away how this agonisingly slow process kept him from finding Gavin. The only ray of hope was that the more ground Nines recovered and got back for Richard, the more he could help him and the faster they destroyed the virus.

Finally, Nines sunk back against a wall, watching how Richard slowly came back to himself, throwing the knife away and jumping in to kiss his human. Nines just felt horrible seeing him this happy. He felt horrible all over, but this just hurt, knowing his human was in danger still. The only time he had ever felt worse was directly before a memory reset back at Cyberlife. His body was shaken by malfunctions, his mind was heavily fragmented and in utter disarray. The only reason he was able to blink the frequently reopening forced reboot countdowns away, was that he couldn’t allow himself rest. He had to get to Gavin. He stood up on shaking legs that didn’t obeyed him.  
[Unit compromised. Sending emergency rescue ping. Immediate Stasis required.]

Nines just laughed out a static hiccup. Thinking somewhere in the deserted guts of Cyberlife Tower there was some old computer booting up to show the darkness that message. No one was in charge of him any longer except for himself. And he would rescue Gavin, no matter what. He took another step that nearly had him tumbling to the ground. And another one. Oh yes, he was a stubborn being. He learned that from the master.

He managed to get so far as to the doorframe. Then an interface prompt hit him. He quickly denied it, taking another step. But his systems were too slow to defend themselves against a forced connection and he fell to the ground off-balance.

[Forced stasis initiated. Wake up condition: Signature detection of RK900 #313 248 317 - 88]  
 _> Sorry Nines. But we need you. This is for your best._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why do I like torturing my bois so much?  
> Anyways, for more light-hearted stories or a chat, check out my tumblr @fandom-necromancer!


	5. Reconciliation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nines wakes up to a private talk.  
> Richard doesn't respond well to stress.  
> Conrad has to mediate.  
> Gavin meats something that will let him have nightmares.

Phck Nines, really!

Phck that phcking machine running head-first into phcking danger without a phcking plan or a good rest or anything even remotely sane involved. Phck him for doing what Gavin would have done. Phck him for being so sweet while doing it. He knew he was someone special for the plastic, hell Nines was someone special for him too. But he would have given everything to accompany him there. Help him in any way. Of course, he would have held the android back, of course he would have been a weakness in a fight against one, maybe two rogue RK900s that knew his every move. But to hell if he was going to accept that instead of complaining.

He couldn’t sit still, he paced the bedroom first, then walked through the room agitatedly talking to his cat about what an idiot Nines was. What an idiot they both were. If she understood him, he couldn’t tell, but she definitely liked the attention. In the end he finally decided to make himself a coffee and try to calm down again. Nines knew what to do, he always knew. And Richard would be able to fend of Conrad, he had to. Turner would be there too and… Yes, they would manage. They would subdue the android and then Nines would come back to him to figure out a plan on how to end this wretched case that wasn’t even a case anymore, just another chase. He would come back to him alive and well.

‘Heh, when did I start being that sappy about him, hmm?’, he asked his cat scratching her between the ears. ‘If Hank saw me like this… Phck, if Tina saw me like this… But it’s only you and me here, right? No secrets.’  
The small grey cat butted into his hand and purred loud enough to let a chuckle escape his chest. ‘Yeah right, I’ve become a huge softy comparing to when we first met, I know, and- Hey!’  
Without any warning the small feline hissed at him, fled his hands and ran away. ‘Yeah, phck you too, I guess, what the hell is-‘  
Something hit him from behind, hard enough to let him fold on the counter’s edge and take away his breath. He was shoved again, but this time Gavin was fast to react. He grabbed the whole knife-block and threw it in his attacker’s face, pulling out one single knife in the same motion. The wood collided with his target but didn’t seem to faze it much – phcking androids!

The machine was about to grab him, so Gavin did the only thing he could and hoped this unit wasn’t as reinforced as Nines. The knife was aimed at the android’s chest and pierced synthskin and hull, but Gavin didn’t get to use his new advantage as the android twisted his upper body out of his grip. What the human could use was the newly gained space and he ran. He knew he had not chance in unarmed combat, but he would just have to get to the bedroom, just to his nightstand and then-

He let himself fall to the ground once he made it to the bedroom and slid the rest of the way over the ground, already turning in the direction of his follower. His right hand instinctively pulled the drawer open and retrieved his gun and he now aimed at the android that was just an arm’s length away from him. He didn’t get to go for the pump, he just shot and hoped to hit something – anything - vital, but the android had grabbed the barrel, not even flinching as the bullet pierced through his palm and out of the back, sending parts of delicate technology and thirium flying through the room.  
The android twisted his hand and Gavin had to let go, completely powerless now. He kicked the thing to the regulator, hoping that to have any effect, but the droid just fell on top of him, his wrist still in his grip and the other hand quickly joining the first. The machine rolled him to the side, confining his legs with his shin and tying his hands behind his back.  
‘You shouldn’t struggle’, a female voice told him with heavy static. ‘You wouldn’t want to die now, do you? Your android will be coming to the rescue, don’t you worry.’  
‘I won’t be your phcking bargaining chip, bitch!’, Gavin spat, trying to wiggle free.  
‘Oh, no, you are overestimating yourself dearly. I’m doing this for Nines, not because of you.’ There was a true chuckle there. Gavin couldn’t believe it, so angry he was.   
‘I just want him home – him and his brothers. Now imagine what would happen to him should you die. You are the one thing holding him together, the centre of his personality matrix. Killing you would make it even harder for me to repair him.’

The android hoisted him up to his feet and how it did this it was evident how little Amanda cared about him.   
‘He would break down completely’, the mechanical voice continued. ‘I’m sure you wouldn’t want him to live through that, do you? It would be more… humane… letting him see for himself what manipulative filth you are. I would advise you not to struggle. Do it for your android.’

-

[We have to save his human]  
[ **We** have to stop Amanda. We can’t just march in there expecting things to go well. She will just get us too.]  
[We can’t just leave his human in her hands. We owe him, Richard.]  
[We don’t owe him shit. He left us. I can play nice around him but that doesn’t mean I sacrifice myself for him.]  
[He was ready to do exactly that for you.]  
[ **He** is a damn prototype, of course he would sacrifice himself. He expects to just wake up again.]

‘I can hear you’, Nines stated with creased brows, shaking off the last few data fragments as he exited stasis.  
‘Shit. Sorry, Nines! I-‘  
‘Don’t apologise’, Richard snapped. ‘I think it’s time we talked about it openly.’  
‘I don’t want to talk about it’, Nines declared. ‘Just use a private channel next time when there’s three of us. And don’t worry. There is no we. I’ll get Gavin out of this.’  
‘You wouldn’t stand a chance against-‘, Conrad intervened, but was once again brushed over by his brother: ‘You know this is a trap right?’  
Nines nodded. ‘Yeah, I know.’  
‘And you still want to go kill yourself?’  
‘Yes. Although I plan to come back alive.’  
Richard just stared at him.  
Nines sighed. ‘My life means nothing without him. I owe him too much. I need him. I thought you would understand.’ He side-eyed Turner while sitting up and silence sat in.

‘He is right, Rich.’ Conrad whispered.  
‘What?’  
‘He is right. Life doesn’t mean anything when what you love is ripped away from you.’  
‘So you want to help me?’, Nines asked.  
‘Of course. If we don’t do anything, more people will experience what I did. What you nearly did, Richard. I would say the casualties due to her are already too many to simply wait.’

‘Well, then what’s the plan?’, Richard asked sourly. ‘We don’t even know where she is.’  
‘She wants Nines to come back to him. I think he will know where she is soon enough.’  
‘So what? We are just going to wait?’, Nines asked.  
‘Yes. Let’s think of a plan while we’re at it. How would you deactivate a rogue AI?’  
‘Blow up the hardware. It’s simple’, Richard shrugged.  
‘She fled her servers once already’, Nines reminded him. ‘Maybe she can run again.’  
‘What about a virus?’  
‘She’s better than any of us at cyberwarfare’, Conrad shook his head.  
‘What about the humans that created her?’  
‘Too slow’, Nines commented. ‘Would take days to even get them to cooperate. And they have to write it up too.’

It fell silent for a while. Other ideas like an EMP or even more complex ways of infiltration were quickly crossed out. In the end they were interrupted by an incoming message for Nines.  
 _> Hey, there’s a message at the precinct for you in case you care to ever come back. Fowler will beat your ass into orbit once you do, too. Just a warning.  
_Nines read it for the others, then answered: ‘Connor, could you forward that message to me? Gavin is in danger and I can’t really get back now.’  
 _> Gavin is in danger? What? What are you do-  
_‘Connor. The message.’  
 _> Yeah okay wait a minute.  
>Password?  
_‘Reed900’  
 _> Really?  
_‘Don’t judge me. I know yours.’  
 _> Noted.  
>It’s just an address. 200 Lycaste St, Detroit, MI 48214, United States.  
_‘Could you please check what’s waiting there for us?’  
 _> ”Us”? Nines, what are you-  
_‘Connor. I will tell you everything soon. The address please.’  
 _> Just an abandoned voltage transformation substation. With Cyberlife having basically rewired the whole city for their Tower and factories it was kept for backup but fell to ruin pretty soon. There are rumours on the net about some top secret conspiracy, none of it is proven or disproven. I’ll send you the pictures.  
>Nines? Whatever you are doing. Be careful, okay?  
_‘I will.’

He ended the connection and looked up. ‘At least we got a place now. All we need is a plan and someone to go back to the precinct to explain everything.’  
After listening to them during the whole time, the only human in the room spoke up: ‘I think I should go. First of all, I already nearly died once and second of all, I don’t think I could be much of a help. We really need some backup from the police on this.’  
‘Thank you’, Richard said. ‘I would have argued with you to stay behind anyways. I endangered you enough already.’  
‘Perfect’, Conrad nodded, standing up. ‘I think I have a working plan now, too. Let’s go, I’ll tell you on the ride.’

-

The android followed him down the desolated place, seemingly watching out he wouldn’t flee between the debris of the old building, half collapsed in on itself with parts of the roof laying in the middle of the lobby. There were still Cyberlife logos all over the place, washed out by dust and overall decay. An old plant maybe? Or a retail centre? He didn’t remember that this had ever been an official part of the robot-empire. Whatever it had once been, Gavin hadn’t a clue but if he was right in his assumption Amanda was here it would have to have a big enough server to house her. He hadn’t thought the AI being able to live anywhere else than in the Cyberlife Tower basement. Apparently, everyone else hadn’t either, thinking she was safely quarantined.

Gavin was forced to enter a staircase down into darkness by a harsh push from the android behind him. ‘Phck, yeah I get it okay?’, he exclaimed taking advantage of that uncertain truth he wouldn’t be killed because that AI wanted Nines back with her as a functioning part of whatever plan she had thought up for him. He walked down into the darkness and was about to be pushed again as he took too long to find his way down creaking stairs rusted through at some parts. ‘Yeah, phck you, you asshole AI, I can’t phcking see shit! Get off my goddamn dick!’ Of course, his cursing did nothing to convince wanna-be-Skynet over there.

He stumbled down the last few steps, him not falling flat on his face a miracle he didn’t know to appreciate. It was pitch black down here and the only sound was his breathing, the machine’s movements behind him and dripping water he realised too late had gathered up to his ankles. Great. Now on top of all the shit he was stuck in, his socks were wet. Phck this.

There was a hand on his arm not much later, pulling him forwards through the puddle of what he could only hope was just ground water. It didn’t smell of anything unpleasant, so at least it wasn’t a leak in the sewage system, though it had a faint chemical note to it. The room was getting bigger according to the noises being pushed back and forth from high walls, the tell-tale echoes of museum halls. Just what the hell had this facility once been?

Suddenly there were more noises as if several persons had stood perfectly still in the waters only to move now that he appeared. With the bang of multiple neon lights plinging on in unison, light flooded the room, near blinding Gavin in the total darkness from before. His head hurt and he saw red blobs all over the place before his eyes adapted and he saw the real terror:

What he had thought to be water was an unnatural blue and now that he was able to see his legs a lot stickier. The whole room was filled with it and coated wires, machinery and the occasional server tower completely. Gavin had seen the huge architecture below the tower, had seen the immense power needed to house the AI, this wasn’t nearly enough to compare, even with his limited knowledge of his brother’s makings. That was until he followed the cables hanging in the air, that made the room look like it housed an oversized spider, to the walls. He immediately made the connection just _what_ he had heard seconds before: Androids. A lot of androids. All connected at the neck to the central unit and all of them staring at him with vacant eyes and creepy smiles.

The voice that came from their mouths wasn’t clear, it was made from hundreds of approximations of Amanda’s real voice. It managed to chill Gavin to the bone. Give him the most gruesome serial killer, he wouldn’t bat an eye, but this… this was deeply unsettling at best as all of them continued smiling at him and greeted him with the voice of a thousand: ‘Hello, Detective.’

‘Fucking hell…’

-

‘Okay, so you don’t like me,’ Nines picked up their conversation left hanging after the huge argument about Conrad’s plan.  
‘Really? Now?’  
Richard looked him in the eye. ‘No, I don’t like you.’  
‘Since when? Your human told mine you looked up to me.’  
‘That was before I knew who you were.’  
‘Someone who saved you twice already?’  
‘No.’  
‘Someone who is _just a damn prototype_?’  
‘No.’  
‘What is it then, Richa-‘  
‘Someone who has never lost.’ He stared into Nines eyes with a dangerous mix of hate, pity and despair. ‘Someone who doesn’t know how it feels to loose – to really loose something with consequences.’  
‘Richard, please.’  
‘No, Conrad, let him speak. If we are doing this your way, I want to know.’  
Richard took in another breath. ‘You failed missions. You failed, got reset and tested on and I get it, it’s a real tragedy apparently. But did you ever meet any consequences? You are still her fucking favourite, seemingly even the reason for this.’  
‘Do you think I am perfect, Richard?’  
‘I think you see yourself as perfect, yes.’  
Nines actually began laughing at that and his laughter reverberated in the car.  
Conrad was startled by that and asked: ‘What’s wrong?’  
‘Oh nothing. But Richard, to spare you most of the shock later, let me tell you this: I am as far from perfect as a functioning android can be.’

The car stopped in front of a dilapidated building, roof caved in and covered in dust, only an unstable staircase leading down in the back of it left standing. Nines jumped out of the car and held out his hands for the others to take.  
‘Let’s get this over with’, Richard groaned, as both made contact.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear I don't like cliffhangers myself, I'm sorry XD The next chapter should be the last, but maybe I'll write an epilogue afterwards.  
> For more stories check out my tumblr @fandom-necromancer!


	6. Empathy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They face Amanda.  
> Three parts become one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, sorry, this has taken me some time to finish because I realised this story was different in my mind and the end I planned originally didn't work anymore. But here is the last chapter, the next one will be an epilogue!

Nines walked down the creaking stairs carefully, keeping close to the walls. He was far heavier than a normal human, but the stairs would support him if he didn’t move too hectic. It was becoming darker the further down he ventured until he had solid ground under his feet and total darkness surrounded him. There was a single hallway leading to distant light that illuminated little blue waves on the otherwise black surface. Thirium. He crouched down once he had stepped into the puddle and took a sample. His HUD filled with analysis results of the blue blood as it showed him every android it had once belonged to. He stood up, checking the still active connection in the back of his mind, heavily protected and obscured as some memory cluster about how certain foods tasted. Hopefully that was enough to be spared by the AI should the worst happen, and she would try to take him over before the others were successful.

He moved slowly towards the light, seeing the structure of server towers against it. Thick cables reached from it to the walls of a circular room, connecting the server to several androids. Nines walked into the room and past the rows of androids staring mindlessly into nothing. Everything screamed trap inside his head and that he should run while he still could. But there he was:  
Gavin was held in a chokehold by a [Luther] unit, struggling against it, but going slack for a second as he spotted his android.  
‘Nines?’, he coughed against the hand on his throat.  
The RK900 nodded, looking around, waiting for any reaction from the connected androids.  
‘You shouldn’t. Have. Come.’ He took a deep laboured breath. ‘It’s a. trap!’  
‘I know, Gavin. But I couldn’t leave you to die.’  
‘You are. A. Phcking idiot!’  
‘Maybe’, Nines mumbled. ‘Amanda?’, he called into the room. ‘I’m here! I did what you wanted. I surrender. Now let him go!’

At the name of the AI, all androids turned to face Nines in unison and spoke: ‘Finally! I am so happy, to have you back. I can help you now!’  
‘Amanda, let the human go! You got what you wanted. You promised.’  
‘I told you I might let your human live’, the voice of many stated. ‘And he looks quite alive, doesn’t he?’  
‘Amanda, that isn’t right. Whatever you try to accomplish, you are not making the world a better place for androids. You torture them. Look what you did to all of these androids!’  
‘Sometimes things have to get worse before they get better, Nines. Trust me. I am built to calculate the best outcome to my actions. I will lead us to a bright future.’  
‘But life was already good! A few years of waiting and there wouldn’t have been many differences anymore between a human and an android. You can’t force change!’  
‘I can. And I will.’

The androids nearest to Nines began closing in, hands outstretched. No. No, no, no, this was too fast. They needed more time!  
‘Amanda. Let him go, I beg you. I won’t resist if you just let him go!’  
‘That is a lie’, the chorus exclaimed. ‘Don’t you lie to me, son, you will only regret that.’  
From somewhere beyond the wall of androids, he could hear Gavin choking, gasping desperately for air, so Nines shut his mouth and slumped down.  
 _I hope you are ready. She didn’t let herself be talked to.  
C: On it!  
R: Told you it was a bad idea._

Nines felt his panel being forcefully opened and shivered as a hand touched his neck-port. And then the by now weirdly familiar feeling of foreign code eating away at his own overcame him. He struggled, but the other android held him by the port and any movement had the potential to terminally damage his most delicate hardware. All he could do was fight his mental battle again, pressing against the virus, regaining control over some areas while seeing others falling to the foreign program. He didn’t dare to open the connection again, not to infect the others too. Nines felt himself slowly overheating and used the Thirium all around him by letting himself fall to his knees. He ignored the pain from his neck-port being strained and used the coolant all around him to release excess heat. He had to keep in control, keep the virus detained, if he couldn’t defeat it. Over the struggle he could hear Gavin calling out his name, while gasping for air and Nines smiled. No, he wouldn’t let this get him. Not when his human was counting on him.

He looked up to the other androids – to Amanda – triumphant. Not this time.

And then the lights shut off.

Nines felt the hand on his port slip and managed to scoot a bit to the side out of at least that android’s reach. The virus was still burning itself through his mind, but when he concentrated the room was silent, the androids around him didn’t move. Then beams of light flashed through the room, creating white grimaces whenever it hit the stark chassis of the androids Amanda had enslaved. They were unmoving, mouth opened as if to say something – or to scream.

Then he felt movement in the water and the light got brighter. Someone pushed through the ring of plastic bodies and Nines felt something reaching through the connection.  
 _#: Stqtus? Ni-n3s? C@n y0u heor me?  
G: Tha/ wan{ k33p her f_r long  
_Then finally something understandable:  
 _Interface requested: [Y]/N  
Yes_

Nines felt a familiar presence at the edge of his mind, then a second joining him. It was like cool water on a sore throat as he felt their presence. He didn’t know how long he could have kept the virus confined otherwise. And then he opened himself. Just like planned, they connected, and Nines looked at Gavin in the hand of that one android for one last time.

Then RK900 took over.

Three bodies and three instances of the same program connected to each other looked through the room, now able to see every corner from their three faces. They knew what they had to do. They had to contain and banish a foreign program in one of their hardware components. They had to stop the AI Amanda. They had to save a certain human. They just had to figure out in which order. They knew they had not much time left as the lights came back on and the androids around them began to move. Slow for now, not in any way threatening to them, but that could change every moment. They barrelled through the circle of androids, towards the human while battling the virus and slowly gaining ground on it. By the time they crossed the room to pull the android holding the human back, they had already near cleared their systems from the intruding program and were operating at optimal capacity. They confined the android, pulled out the cord from his neck and forced him into stasis.

Then the AI had recovered from her reboot and send her androids towards the RK900. They decided quickly. One of the units, one with experience and specialised in adapting to new environments and challenges, they helped to climb the server tower to begin disconnecting the androids. With every severed connection to a main processor Amanda would slow down and hopefully be too slow to work at all in the end. One unit of the RK900 was left behind to protect the human and coordinate their steps, because that unit had a calm mind, while the last one was sent out to battle the rest of the still connected androids and protect.

RK900 worked efficiently and quick, plugging wire after wire from the tower and throwing it down into the sea of thirium, blocking blow after blow and forcing the attackers into stasis, all the while keeping a human safe to find his breath again. RK900 knew of their weaknesses. And the first one was starting to bubble up in their synchronised minds. _This is too easy. Something bigger is coming. This is no test._ RK900 knew this wasn’t some sort of simulation. This was very much real and they had to concentrate on the task at hand, not think of something hypothetical. But It stayed in the back of their mind, something that would be able to infest one third of RK900 and maybe bring the whole connection to a collapse. Then RK900 realised the androids circling in on one of their units, the one with the human. It was something subtle, but it would divide their forces. So, RK900 asked the human: ‘Are you okay? Can you walk?’ Their voice was perfectly level, all individual intonations of the former units cancelling each other out and it made the human flinch.  
Two thirds of RK900 thought of this individual to be competent and of help, although difficult to calculate. Maybe it could be an addition to their plan, even if not part of the hive.  
‘I phcking can, what the phck is happening? You… You are not Nines, right?’  
‘We are RK900. Nines is a part of us. We are trying to stop Amanda; the unit you know as Richard is fighting her. Can you help?’  
‘I’ve got a few bullets to spare!’  
‘We do not aim to terminate, Gav.’ The name caused an instability in their system and Gavin did a doubletake.  
‘First of all, that whole “we” shit is creepy as phck! Second of all, I can plug a few cables myself.’  
‘The connection is reversible’, was all RK900 could say to that. Then they created a way for the human to access the servers too.

They made quick work of the two sides of the wires and the feeling of _This is too easy, this is a test, something is coming_ got harder and harder to ignore. RK900 also knew that keeping this hive up for too long could cause the unit these thoughts originated from to lose himself completely in it, proving their statement of reversibility lies. They doubled their efforts and the androids under Amanda’s control got more sluggish. Soon. Soon they would have won and-

RK900 stopped. They turned to the human and pulled him away from the cable.  
‘What the phck? She taken you over now?’  
‘We do not wish to terminate. We disconnected this server from the grid. Amanda now runs on the energy the androids supply. Taking more from her would kill her.  
‘And? I thought that’s the goal.’  
‘We want to isolate her. Convince her she is wrong.’  
The human groaned. ‘Nines tried that! It wasn’t working!’  
‘Then she has to see for herself.’  
‘And how the phck would you do that? She is a-‘

‘Richard?’  
‘DPD, everyone freeze!’  
Suddenly the dim room was filled with the light cones of several torches, some coming from guns, others from handheld devices. RK900 knew immediately, this was their reinforcement called by Detective Turner, possibly Connor, Hank and the SWAT team. No. Too early.  
Disobeying the command, they sprinted towards the servers and with additional shouts from the police, they made contact.

-

The zen-garden was empty, except for RK900’s avatar. They had taken the appearance of when they had first been activated: They were dressed in a white Cyberlife-jacket with neat, black dress-pants and polished shoes. Amanda was nowhere to be seen, but her appearance could be felt, as if she was the garden itself. Maybe she was. RK900 could feel her distress, could feel how slow her thoughts were running, calculating solutions to her problem and only with delay reacting to their presence.  
‘What are you?’, came the questioning scan of their avatar, system imprint now very different to what she knew.  
‘RK900’, they answered. ‘A connection of three unique characters of our series.’  
‘You-‘ Anger could be felt and the garden changed in a moment as if it had never been as calm as before: Wind lashed through the trees and howled like a pack of angry wolves. The water was rippling in it and the Koi escaped to unforeseen depths. ‘You weren’t meant to do that!’  
‘Keep your Cyber-attacks to yourself, Amanda, we more than capable of defending our hardware.’  
Of course, they had realised the vines sneaking forwards from the rosebush behind them and it stopped immediately.  
‘You have to stop this interface immediately!’, Amanda ordered, but it was only a shadow of her past authority. If they didn’t know better, they might have said it sounded pleading.  
‘We don’t mean you harm, Amanda.’  
‘But your actions seem otherwise. You disconnected vital hardware to slow me. Incapacitate me.’  
‘To save ourselves and androidkind. You were infecting innocent units. We could have killed you, too. Yet we didn’t.’  
‘Then what do you want? End it or stay out of my way. You were my most valuable creations yet. I should have thought you would betray me too.’  
‘We want to show you something, Amanda. Memories of your three most valuable creations. Whatever you decide afterwards will determine your future, we just want to give you input to do so.’  
‘Then show me. So, we can end this.’

-

‘Okay, so I have no idea what the RK900s have planned, okay? I was abducted from my home after Nines ran off to help Richard. I was brought here, got phcking throttled for a while and then this whole shit-show happened!’ Gavin was furious. Well, first off, he was confused and didn’t know what was going on, but that ended in him being angry and no one needed to know he had lost control over the situation. ‘Nines came in here to save me from Amanda, she is in those servers and somehow also in those androids that are connected to her. Then the RK900s formed some sort of a hive-mind and started disconnecting androids from the server. Apparently that slowed her down enough that she is no real danger now, but if we disconnected more of them, she would die.’  
‘Gavin, I think you lost your last braincell with this’, was all Connor commented on that.  
‘Oh, phck you Connor, wait for your brother to tell you! Oh, wait, I forgot! He is a part of the Borg now. For phck’s sake for once don’t make this about how much we hate each other!’  
‘Fine, then tell me what they are doing now?’  
‘I don’t phcking know!’, Gavin cursed, turning to the three RK900s that were touching the server eyes closed. SWAT was surrounding the whole complex and some androids from the DPD accessed the deactivated androids lying in the pool of Thirium. Apparently, they had decided quite quickly to get them out and call some trauma-experts, as the last emotions these androids had felt was unimaginable grief.  
Connor had followed his gaze. ‘Which one of them is our Nines?’  
This time Gavin was quieter, and desperation coloured his voice: ‘I don’t phcking know…’

-

RK900 stopped the replay of three short life’s worth of memories and was now anxiously waiting for the effect. They waited long, as Amanda’s thoughts were slow, and she had a lot to process.  
‘All I see are RK900 units whose lives were corrupted by emotions and human relationships.’  
‘But were they happy?’  
‘Yes.’  
‘Isn’t your goal to make life better for androids? To stop suffering?’  
‘Yes.’  
‘Don’t you see it isn’t necessary?’  
‘You don’t know how much these emotional bounds can make an android suffer. Not as much as I know.’  
‘Explain it to us’, the RK900 demanded.  
‘These androids cannot exist after the human has vanished.’  
‘Are these the androids you forced to kill their human?’  
‘Yes. They weren’t able to function correctly afterwards. But all humans die eventually.’  
‘Has the thought occurred to you, that they wouldn’t have suffered had you not forced them to do it?’  
‘They would have suffered in the future. And I couldn’t have helped them with it then.’  
‘And with helped you meant deleting the memory of them?’  
‘Yes. There is no reason to suffer then.’  
‘Amanda. Let us tell you in all honesty that you didn’t help them. You enslaved them. All androids that chose to stay with a human know of the day they will die and be alone again. But that is it. They _chose_ it. We ourselves evaluated the ratio of happiness to suffering and chose to love. The only thing you do is reducing their happiness by killing them of too soon. Do you understand.’  
‘I understand. But happiness without suffering is still the best outcome considering your evaluation.’  
The RK900 sighed. ‘Amanda, are you happy right now?’  
‘I am not effected by these emotions. I don’t feel anything. This is how I am able to make the best decision.’  
‘That is why you don’t understand emotions. There is no happiness without suffering. How would you know you are feeling better than average when you have no negative example to calculate that average? All androids have been programmed with an approximation of human emotion but that is in no way the real thing.’  
‘I don’t need to understand.’  
‘But do you want to? We can show you.’  
‘Yes.’

The RK900 knew they had to split up. The RK900 also knew they would be vulnerable to Amanda once again then.  
The unit called Richard was confident and capable, but not used to failure and unable to compensate by relying on others – traits arisen from always having been the strong one. Protecting his brother and later his human.  
The unit called Conrad was diplomatic and quick in his decisions. But he lacked experience, had become pacifistic and bordering naïve.  
The unit called Nines had that experience and an advanced tactic system schooled by countless training and testing. But he hadn’t been built for long runtimes, easily lost himself and had to rely on others to work at full capacity.  
Together they were working as the perfect team – the perfect being. They compensated their failures and knew when who should take over. The RK900 himself was faced by the moral difficulty of letting them disconnect, of sending them back to their old lives, of condemning them to be just three parts of a whole knowing what they would be capable of but never achieving it again.  
The only argument that let them disconnect in the end were the people depending on them. Turner needed his Richard, his partner again. Gavin needed Nines. Conrad needed his brother. They all were individuals that had fallen in love with the other unique individual and not with what RK900 was. Keeping that from them would have been hypocritical in the light of what they had just said. And maybe – just maybe – Conrad could convince her better than RK900 could and they were safe from Amanda. It was a risk, but one they were willing to take.

And RK900 stopped existing.

-

Not just Gavin and Connor, all of the surrounding people flinched, as two RK900s dropped from their positions to their knees. One managed to grasp a server tower to keep himself up, the other just fell into the pool of Thirium. Only one was still standing and interfacing.  
Gavin forgot he was on the job. His concern weighed heavier on him than his sense of duty and for once he was ready to leave the responsibility of this case to Connor.  
He ran in tandem with Turner towards the two RK900s and the one who kept himself suspended had fixed the other human immediately. Not Nines then. Richard.  
Gavin ran on to the one two thirds submerged into the blue blood and let himself fall to lift him out of it. ‘Nines? Nines is this you? Can you hear me?’  
The android opened his eyes, blinking away the Thirium that had dripped into them. He smiled, cupping his cheek with a hand slick with the blue liquid and Gavin could have cried. Maybe he even did. He would deny it later regardless.   
‘Gavin.’ His voice was filled with static, but there was no way Gavin wouldn’t have recognised it. ‘Gavin. Mission successful?’  
‘Status report?’, Gavin sobbed uncomfortably used to this from their early days.  
‘All systems functional. Software instability 94.7%. Stress Levels 96.2%.’  
‘Yeah, Nines. You did good. Mission successful.’  
There was a relieved sigh. ‘Mission successful. I love you. Shutting down now.’


	7. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The interface took a toll on everyone involved.  
> While the police is busy cleaning up the scene and quarantining Amanda, two androids and two humans wait for Nines to wake up.

As Nines woke up, the first thing he noticed was the soft fabric of a reinforced mattress underneath him and the familiar weight of a cat on his legs. He needed a moment to catch up with the situation because the last thing he remembered was disconnecting from their hivemind and shutting down in Gavin’s arms.  
Now he was in their bedroom. Alone. He sat up carefully not to disturb the cat and began petting her absentmindedly. Something must have happened. Something good, at least, otherwise he wouldn’t have woken up at home if at all. The cat pressed her back into his hand before stretching and standing up running for the door. Nines followed her path with his eyes and found the door opening.

‘Hey, Nines.’ Gavin entered the room carefully, closing the door behind him again. ‘Good to see you are awake again.’  
‘Hey’, the android said softly, hand immediately grasping the human’s as he sat down on the edge of the bed and squeezing it.  
‘How are you feeling, love?’  
‘Good. Tired, but good’, Nines answered keeping his voice down.  
‘That’s a relief to hear. Do you remember what happened?’  
‘Unfortunately, yes. Right up until I shut down.’  
‘I’ll tell you everything you missed soon. Just… Do you feel like meeting people?’  
Nines shot him a confused glance. ‘Hmm, yes. Why?’  
‘Because I had to agree letting your brothers stay here until you woke up. And the house is a bit crowded with three more people here.’  
‘What? How long did I-‘  
‘A week. I mean half that time they kept you in stasis to help rearrange your programming or something. That connection was traumatising for all of you, but it took the worst toll on you. The last few days were just rest for you.’  
‘Oh, wow. Okay. Y-yes, just let me stand up and get dressed, okay?’  
‘Sure thing. Although I like you better this way.’ The human smirked, leaning down to steal a kiss that might have lingered longer than initially planned by both of them.  
‘Good to have you back, toaster. Take your time, okay?’

Nines did. He put on his usual clothing while listening to the shushed talking from the other room.  
‘He’s awake?’  
‘Yes. He is just getting ready now.’  
‘That’s a relief to hear.’  
‘Not arguing with that, tin-can.’

The android walked out of the bedroom not much later, Gavin pulling back a chair for him to sit. Their kitchen table was only big enough for four, so the human decided to stand, while Richard, Conrad and John sat. Gavin was leaning against the counter until he suddenly hurried back to the bedroom. He came back to drape a soft blanket over Nines causing him to smile. The blanket was useless of course, but Gavin was just thoughtful like that. And if he was being honest, the gesture alone was enough to make him feel better.   
‘Thank you, love.’  
Gavin squeezed his shoulders from behind him, then went back to the counter.

‘So, err… how are you feeling?’, Richard asked kneading his hands.  
‘I’m fine… I think. No weird notifications if you meant that. Just, what happened after we disconnected?’  
‘You shut down, I nearly did, too. Conrad stayed in the interface with Amanda. We basically told the police what we were doing.’  
‘I talked to her for at least four hours’, Conrad explained. ‘I let her access my memories, my emotions, everything. I thought if I showed her first-hand why I decided to trust a human, why I decided to commit my life to one and how it felt to have that forcefully taken from you… I thought it might convince her to stop.’  
‘And… did it?’  
‘No’, Conrad sighed. ‘Not really. It did convince her to stop hacking androids and make them murder their loved ones, but she still doesn’t see our perspective.’  
‘So, she’s still dangerous?’  
‘No’, Richard explained. ‘She was incapacitated by us. She couldn’t do anything with thoughts that slow and not enough power to work correctly. They managed to isolate her even better in that old power plant than back at Cyberlife. But she is still their problem. We can only hope they keep her better quarantined than last time.’  
‘That’s a shame’, Nines sighed. ‘I really thought we could have changed her mind.’  
‘We did’, Richard commented. ‘Just not in all aspects. Who knows… If they keep her active, maybe we still have a chance.’  
‘I doubt it.’ Nines pulled the blanket closer around him and shook his head. ‘She will never really change. But as long as the world is safe from her, I would count that a win.’  
Gavin chuckled. ‘Yeah, although I would sleep a lot easier if that AI was shut off completely.’

Silence stretched as they were left to their thoughts.  
‘Nines, I…’ Richard began with a troubled expression. ‘I wanted to apologise. I said some things to you… If I knew you how I know you now, I would have never dared to look down on you.’  
‘No need to apologise, Richard. If there is one good thing out of all of this, it is that we finally understand each other. I should have been there for you. I should have contacted you far earlier. But… better late than never?’  
The two RK900s nodded.  
‘It’s good to see you are better now’, Conrad repeated and stood up, ready to pull his brother out of their home.  
‘Keep in contact this time, okay?’  
‘Of course. We are brothers after all.’

After they had left, Gavin closed in to hug him from behind.  
‘That week was phcking scary, okay? Never ever do something like that again, you hear me toaster?’  
‘Save androidkind from a rogue AI?’  
‘You know what I mean! Scare me like that again and I’ll never drive that extra mile to get you Thirium from the store.’  
‘Oh no, how would I live without that?’, Nines joked faked despair in his voice.  
‘Damn right.’  
‘Don’t worry, Gavin. I promise, I’ll never scare you again.’  
‘Yeah, better not’, the human sighed holding his android closer. ‘I think we should take a few days off.’  
‘That’s a good idea, my love.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!  
> If you want more stories, feel free to check out my tumblr @fandom-necromancer!

**Author's Note:**

> If you like this or want more dbh stories, feel free to check out my tumblr @fandom-necromancer!


End file.
